Alright, TTORP (a.k.a. "cs-battletrack") has had enough changes that an update is in order.  In working out some bugs, I've noticed some features that I'd forgotten about, and probably never told anybody else about.

UPGRADES (THE HIGHLIGHTS):

1. Weapons, Armor, Gear, and Feats/Special Abilities now use a dialog to create new records (there are "Add" buttons now)
   • after the record is added, that part of the page is reloaded (without a full page refresh)
   • only the name need be entered; things like weapons and armor (that have more fields) can be updated afterward
2. modifying values in weapons & armor no longer leaves them red and unmodifiable, so reloading the page is no longer required
3. saving happens automatically
   • after a 2-second delay, changes are automatically saved (on a per-field basis)
   • no need to click out of the box
   • notes will also save automatically: should alleviate problems of losing a lot of changes after typing for a while and (for instance) closing the page
4. the character listing page shows more information, sorted by campaign (see screenshot; click for larger view)

   

5. Lots of miscellaneous improvements
   • total weight (for gear) automatically updates (on the fly)
   • max cross-class skills calculated (see known issues)
   • putting something into "XP Change" will automatically update "Current XP" (after the 2-second delay)
   • total AC and AC from Armor (labeled as "Armor") automatically calculated (see known issues)
6. Name of campaign (if any) is displayed; the campaign description is available by hovering your mouse over it

KNOWN ISSUES (not necessarily complete):

1. total AC and AC from Armor changes don't show right away, reloading the page will show the proper values
2. max cross-class skills doesn't show correctly until page is reloaded
3. There is no way to delete record:
   • weapons
   • armor
   • gear
   • feats/special abilities
4. there is no way to upload a character picture
5. class/cross-class skill checkboxes don't work

Would you like to help?

You don't need to be a programmer to help me.  All you need is to have a little bit of time, have a computer (you can obviously check that one off the list), and be able to type and formulate coherent thoughts.  Here's some of the things you can do:

1. help with bug testing
   • use the application
   • write down problems, possibly with some helpful info:
     • screenshot
     • your username
     • character sheet it happened on
     • time/day
   • email me, or put an issue on GitHub's issue tracker (you'll have to create an account, but it's painless)
2. go to the issue tracker on GitHub
   • tell me if an issue sounds cool, or is important to you
   • only give constructive criticism
   • add stuff you think is important (tag it as "enhancement")
   • tell your friends to comment on it

Update May 20, 2013:  I've updated the sheet so that class/cross-class skill checkboxes finally work.  It actually uses an image instead of an actual form input.  Yay!

This is the "most current" page for Slaughterstock.  I'll try to keep it updated every year, so you should be able to just bookmark this page to keep current.

Slaughterstock 2013 is, as of right now, still a go.  I'm not exactly sure when or where... stay tuned.

Okay, the servers are moving.  The website is currently being hosted on a temporary server (on a laptop at my house).  Hopefully there will be no service outage (or very minimal).

There are some minor problems with this, mostly with DNS caching... so the website address (e.g. "www.crazedsanity.com") might get cached with an old IP... and the server at the old IP is seemlessly sending those requests to the new server. 

Did that make sense?  Are you a networking geek?  The answer to the two questions is probably the same.  For those of you that said, "no", here's the deal.

If there were two servers that just appeared to be the same, but were actually separate, there might be some data duplication issues.  In the past when this happened, changes to records (like character sheets in TTORP) might disappear.  The techno wizardry I mentioned before will keep that problem from happening.

But hey, if you don't know what TTORP is, or don't have any account on the site, it shouldn't affect you.  At all.  And that's okay.

 Today for me is the start of a new year.  Going with the original Roman calendar March is the first month of Spring and therefore the first month of the New Year.  Today is also my birthday so it is the start of another year of existence for me.

I have been afk for about 8 months now.  I suffered from a number of losses of friends and family last year and basically closed myself off from everybody.  I did some major thinking and made some life altering choices.  I took a new job and moved myself and my family across the state.  I'm finally getting settled in and I'm much happier with my new job and being much closer to friends and family. Unfortunately during low period last year I quit working towards my weight loss goals and actually packed on quite a few pounds.  

I am happy to report that I will again be working towards my goals and blogging about them.  

So, I've got a lot of code that I've written over the years.  Of course, I'm listed as the maintainer, even though a lot of the code hasn't really seen an update in the better part of four years... until recently.

I've been considering doing a lot of things to them, but I really haven't had a reason to.  Back when I originally wrote them, I was using them all the time.  Then I open-sourced them, and continued to maintain them (some to a much greater degree than others).

As I had less reason to use the libraries, they began to stagnate.  The list of bugs grew, and the number of commits shrank.  Developers came, showed a vague amount of interest, then disappeared (see also my "Failure" entry).

The project management application, also one of my creations (well, a rewrite of somebody else's creation), faded into obsolescence.  Occassionally I was reminded because spammers found it and began auto-posting comments on the issues... but then it once again faded.

Well, as I'm gearing up to work on these things again, I realize that I'm having to pay the technical debt.  A lot of the things on that page really rang true for me.  And there's a hell of a lot of debt to be paid.

To hopefully get a bit more exposure, I've moved all of the open feature requests and bugs to the associated issue trackers on GitHub.  If you were associated with any of the old issues, you're probably aware of it (though I can imagine some of the messages went into spam folders).

After some suggestions from friends, I've decided to start posting an "audio blog" about my story, "The Guardian Legend" (or :"Legend of the Guardian", or various derivatives).  It's still under development, as I try to refine my writing style.

I started recording the first chapter.  After some irritations of dealing with Audacity (my audio recording software), I found out some things about it.  First, while the heart of the story is undoubtedly good (at least that's what others have said after reading), it's... well, lacking.  As soon as I start reading it out loud, I find it lacking something.  The words jumble together, and it sorta feels... like a "B" movie. 

But not a BAD "B" movie, but one that has potential.  Like it's lacking good special effects... instead of seeing an awe-inspiring helm of a next-generation spaceship, you see a really tiny corner of it, where a great actor is using something that vaguely looks like one of the computer panels from NASA, back when they launched Apollo 13.

Anyway, I have to figure some way of writing my story so it's entertaining.  The underlying actions are interesting, the idea of what's happening is good... but the way it's written is just... well, it's bad.  I can tell that some of the writing is a few decades old.  Yuck.

So how do I write it?  Somehow, I've gotta find a writing style that matches how I tell stories.  As I remember it, people reading the story weren't as thrilled as the people that I told the story.  Because I really get into it when I'm telling the story, but somehow that just gets lost in the written part... ugh.

Anyway, this entry is just an appetizer.  I'm working on the audio blog, but there's a bit of work left to do.  Stay tuned!

LOVE

Love is like life

Love can thrive and love can die

Love brings joy and happiness

And love can cause pain and grief

Love can bring people together

And it can tear them apart

This may be the end

But I have a question for you

If a rose represents love

Why does a rose wither and die

(this was written by my 15 year old for school)